KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 ― Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session in negative territory, driven by continued profit taking in selected consumer products and plantation counters, and in line with most of the regional markets, dealers said.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down 15.08 points at 1,597.06 compared with Friday’s close of 1,612.14.

It opened 0.64 point higher at 1,612.14.

A dealer said that most of the Asian equities were mixed in early morning trade today, as investors remained on the sidelines waiting for more clear directional drivers, while the US markets closed for the Labour Day holiday.

He said that the new US tariffs on about US$110 billion worth of Chinese goods took effect on Sept 1, as did retaliatory Chinese tariffs of 5.0-10 per cent on a range of US goods.

"Markets seemed to take this latest escalation of the trade war in stride and trading was thin,” he said, adding that investors are now looking forward to a monetary policy decision in Australia out today.

Among heavyweights, Maybank eased one sen to RM8.68, TNB slipped 18 sen to RM13.78, Public Bank fell 10 sen to RM20.22, Petronas Chemicals declined eight sen to RM6.85 while IHH Healthcare added one sen to RM5.80.

Of the actives, Bumi Armada earned half-a-sen to 26 sen, Vsolar eased half-a-sen to 13.5 sen while Ekovest and Sapura Energy were flat at 83 sen and 27.5 sen respectively.

The FBM Emas Index dipped 98.63 points to 11,249.87, the FBMT100 Index decreased 98.24 points to 11,092.39 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 129.62 points to 11,782.43.

The FBM Ace went down 11.30 points to 4,476.90 and the FBM 70 was 95.46 points lower at 13,849.25.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index declined 85.97 points to 15,464.05, the Industrial Products and Services Index was lower by 1.47 points at 147.21 and the Plantation Index reduced 97.18 points to 6,792.30.

On the broader market, losers thumped gainers 506 to 212, while 301 counters remained unchanged, 926 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.10 billion units worth RM651.02 million. ― Bernama